News reports indicate wind turbines collapse regularly in the U.S. and elsewhere. One county in eastern Michigan had two topple in one week last year. ...Ethan Thorp, 27, of Steele City, went out to see the downed wind turbine near Diller ...he's grateful the tower and turbine came down in the cornfield during the early morning hours. "You’d hate to be out there spraying" in the field if a turbine collapsed.

BEATRICE – One of the wind turbine towers in the Steele Flats Wind Farm near Diller, has collapsed. The tower is a half-mile west of Nebraska Highway 103 and one mile north of Nebraska Highway 8. The tower is part of the $138 million wind farm, developed by Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources, which includes 32 wind turbines in southeast Jefferson County and 12 more in southwest Gage County.

One of the 44 GE 1.7 MW turbines sited at NextEra's Steele Flats wind facility suffered a catastrophic collapse. The 74.8-megawatt wind plant located in Jefferson and Gage Counties, Nebraska was placed in service in October 2013.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Omaha office has opened an investigation into the report of a worker's death, Wednesday, May 27th. The 40-year-old temporary worker was working for Wanzek Construction, Inc., which is constructing the Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Center for Invenergy near Elgin, Nebraska.

Ciardi said the weather service has similar agreements with two wind farms in Kansas and one in New York, but none of those wind farms have raised as much concern as the one proposed for Nebraska. For the most part, wind farms are a nuisance to forecasters, but Cottonwood would be the first time in Tornado Alley that a wind farm would be built so close to a radar station, Ciardi said.

Kathryn D. Sullivan Ph.D., Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, sent this response to Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer after Senator Fischer contacted NOAA with concerns pertaining to NextEra's proposed Cottonwood wind energy facility which would site dozens of wind turbines within 2-7 miles of the NEXRAD weather radar in Blue Hill, Nebraska. Senator Fischer's constituents contacted her out of concern for their safety if the weather radar was impaired by the turbines. The letter sent by Dr. Sullivan is provided below and can be accessed by clicking the link on this page. Senator Fischer's letter is also available from this page.

Kallhoff said he was out in his yard working when he heard a loud noise come from the south. When he looked up, he saw pieces of a wind turbine blade falling to the ground from a wind tower located just over a mile from his house. It marks the second time in less than two weeks that there has been a structural failure on a wind turbine blade.

Edison Mission Energy and Vestas still was working at week's end to get the plant, which has 22 wind turbines, back online. ...In late 2008, an explosion and fire in a turbine injured three workers during construction of the nearby Elkhorn Ridge wind farm, also owned by Edison Mission Energy.

The Bloomfield Fire Department responded to the emergency call, but the small fire burned itself out. In late 2008, an explosion and fire in a turbine injured three workers during construction of the Elkhorn Ridge wind farm in northeast Nebraska.

Three investigative teams will be coordinated to learn the cause of this week's fire atop a 260-foot wind turbine north of Bloomfield, the state fire marshal's office said Thursday. The fire occurred at one of 27 turbines on the 80-megawatt Elkhorn Ridge wind farm under construction. Once completed, Elkhorn Ridge will become Nebraska's largest wind farm. ...Meanwhile, work has been suspended at the wind farm, Roberts said.

An explosion and fire at a wind farm under construction in northeast Nebraska has injured three workers. One man, who was atop a tower when a turbine exploded, received first- and second-degree burns in the fire Tuesday morning. Two others, who were nearby, were treated for smoke inhalation and released.

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